But friends say she also will adapt and perform her White House role up to public expectations when she replaces the grandmotherly Barbara Bush in January.

"Precisely because she (Hillary) knows the realities -- that people want a president's wife to be a first lady -- she'll do that. She's shown that in the campaign," said Penn Rhodeen, a lawyer from New Haven, Conn., and longtime acquaintance of Hillary Clinton.

The Clintons entertained infrequently at the Arkansas governor's mansion and Hillary Clinton spent most of her time in her private law practice.

"What she pretty much did was abandon the traditional role," said Rudy Moore Jr., a former chief of staff to Bill Clinton. Moore and Liza Ashley, a former cook at the governor's mansion, both remembered that the Clintons didn't give as many parties as previous Arkansas first couples.

"They both worked so they didn't have too many dinners," Ashley said.

Financially, moving to the White House is a bad career move for Hillary Clinton. The Yale law school graduate will be leaving a total salary of $160,000, which includes her partnership in Little Rock's premier law firm. She already has resigned as a director of Wal-Mart, the Arkansas-based retailing giant. She also has given up chairmanship of the Children's Defense Fund, the Washington-based advocacy group for underprivileged children.

Despite the drastic change in her life, taking an unpaid job in the White House will not cause an identity crisis for Hillary Clinton, who is extremely self-confident, friends say.

Clinton, who used her maiden name, Hillary Rodham, during her husband's first term as governor, underwent a metamorphosis on the presidential campaign trail.

Outwardly, she changed her image from that of assertive career woman to political wife. Many saw it as an indication she can graciously fulfill the traditional role of first lady, hosting state dinners, making public appearances alongside her husband, and dressing appropriately, albeit not in the name-designer style of Nancy Reagan.

"I think she is going to take a certain amount of time to sort out what she can do that is constructive and does not in some way stir up unnecessary controversy," said John Deardourff, a Republican political consultant in Washington who has known Hillary since college.

Deardourff, who served with Hillary Clinton on the Children's Defense Fund board, views her in the tradition of Eleanor Roosevelt, who as first lady served as a foreign emissary for her husband, who had been crippled by polio. "In the 1990s context, I think that's probably the closest thing to Hillary Clinton," Deardourff said.

Other first ladies have had pet projects -- such as Lady Bird Johnson and highway beautification and Rosalynn Carter and mental health. "I would see her taking on something that would have real substance," said Moore, now a lawyer in Fayetteville, Ark.

But don't expect Hillary Clinton, a political pragmatist, to rock the boat too much.

Moore said he wouldn't expect to see Hillary Clinton in a Cabinet position. That would create too much controversy, even more than when John F. Kennedy appointed his brother, Robert, attorney general.

But he would not be surprised, Moore said, if the president-elect gives his wife an important advisory role, possibly in children's affairs, one of her primary areas of expertise, or on legal issues.

Unlike Nancy Reagan, who reportedly counseled her husband on which staff members to replace, it is not Hillary Clinton's style to interfere directly with personnel, Moore said.

"She seldom came to the governor's office. She never talked to a staff person," Moore said.

But late at night, when Moore met with the Clintons at the governor's mansion to talk state business, Hillary Clinton weighed in as the governor's alter ego.

"She always saw the darker side of things," Moore said, recalling that she played devil's advocate to her husband's ideas. "That was one of her greatest contributions."

Hillary Clinton also was appointed in 1983 by her husband to chair a committee on improving public education, which held hearings throughout the state that built a consensus for a tax increase to fund public education.

"I think there was some initial questioning reaction to her appointment. As it worked through the process, those questions largely abated based on her commitment and work," said Sam Bratton Jr., Clinton's former legal counsel and education liaison.

"She's going to be a great role model for my two daughters," said Dr. James Ramey, a Washington internist who knows the Clintons through their membership in an organization of 200 families to discuss national issues. "You can have a successful and productive intellectual career and still maintain a marriage and family. We haven't had other first ladies before who've been solid professional achievers in their own right."